Abstract:
The concept of co-evolution is considered a key characteristic of designing. Several authors have described design thinking processes as the coevolution of design problem and design solution. The theoretical grounding of co-evolution is, however, still in an early stage. In this chapter, we develop the concept by analysing realworld designmeetings of an architect and a client.Thirteen co-evolution episodes are identified in the two architectural meetings and we focus in detail on the utterances of two co-evolutionepisodes. We find that modelling co-evolution in terms of problem and solution is difficult for this data, and we develop a revised model of how co-evolution in a multi-actor setting mightwork. Conversation in an area in between problem and solution, for example about ' use' , would seem to moreaccurately describe how designer and client reach agreement.
